Bud Palmer

{{Short description|American basketball player (1921–2013)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox basketball biography

| image = Bud Palmer 1948.jpg

| image_size = 210

| caption = Palmer in 1948

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 4

| weight_lb = 180

| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|9|14}}

| birth_place = Hollywood, California, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2013|3|19|1921|9|14}}

| death_place = West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.

| high_school =

• Hun School
  (Princeton, New Jersey)
• Phillips Exeter
  (Exeter, New Hampshire)

| college = Princeton (1941–1943)

| career_start = 1946

| career_end = 1949

| career_number = 16

| career_position = Forward / center

| years1 = 1946–1949

| team1 = New York Knicks

| highlights =

| bbr = palmebu01

}}

John Shove "Bud" Palmer (born John Palmer Flynn;{{cite web |last1=Tomlinson |first1=Brett |title=Lives: John 'Bud' Palmer '44 |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/lives-john-%E2%80%98bud-palmer-44 |website=Princeton Alumni Weekly |access-date=October 11, 2020 |date=February 5, 2014}} September 14, 1921 – March 19, 2013) was an American professional basketball player and sportscaster. He was a member of the New York Knicks during the team's first three seasons in the Basketball Association of America and was the leading scorer in the team's inaugural 1946–47 season. Palmer is considered to be one of the inventors of the {{nowrap|jump shot.Martin, Douglas (March 22, 2013). [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/sports/basketball/bud-palmer-jump-shot-pioneer-dies-at-91.html "Bud Palmer, Jump Shot Pioneer, Dies at 91"]. The New York Times. Accessed on June 22, 2017.{{cite book|first=John|last=Christgau|title=The Origins of the Jump Shot. Eight men who shook the world of Basketball|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln (NE)|year=1999}}}}

Born in Hollywood, California, Palmer was the son of football player and actor Maurice Bennett "Lefty" Flynn and singer Blanche Palmer. He was nicknamed "Bud" due to being the budding image of his father; Palmer relinquished his father's surname from his name when his parents divorced. Palmer was {{height|ft=5|in=4}} when he started playing basketball at Hun School of Princeton, and started using the jump shot to compensate for his height. He grew a foot taller to {{height|ft=6|in=4}} by the time he began playing college basketball at Princeton University, and played for three seasons before he enlisted in the U.S. Navy during {{nowrap|World War II.}}

After his NBA career ended, Palmer went on to have a successful career as a sportscaster.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=k6Y0AAAAIBAJ&pg=6373%2C1082066|work=Eugene Register-Guard |location=(Oregon) |agency=Associated Press |title=Bud Palmer gave up a mike for hot dogs |date=December 26, 1975 |page=2B}} He was Chief of Protocol and Official Greeter for the City of New York for seven years during John Lindsay's administration. Palmer modeled menswear, advertised Vitalis hair tonic, and wrote as an advice columnist in Glamour magazine.

Palmer died at 91 of metastatic prostate cancer in 2013 in West Palm Beach, Florida.{{Cite web |last=PBDN |title=John 'Bud' Palmer, a sports broadcasting pioneer, dies |url=https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/story/lifestyle/death-notices/2013/03/23/john-bud-palmer-sports-broadcasting/9631871007/ |access-date=2023-08-26 |website=Palm Beach Daily News |language=en-US}}